Haliburton

Dear all,
this is my model of a De Havilland Mosquito Fighter Bomber Mk. VI belonging to the 143 Squadron of the RAF Coastal Command fighter and anti-submarine unit operating from October 1944 to May 1945 and based at Banff, Scotland.

The kit was the old Tamiya 1/48 which is dated 1998, but I found this kit very nice and it still builds into an impressive model. My build log can be found here.

The Extra Dark Sea Grey camouflage was often painted over the standard RAF grey/green camouflage and I applied the former so that the latter could be seen through the EDSG layer. The model is finished with Tamiya acrylic paints with the exception of the metallic parts that are finished with Vallejo Metallic paints.

All the pictures of this post are taken with a Nikon 3100 camera with an aperture priority mode with an indirect natural sun light illumination.









The dimensions of the Mosquito can be here compared with those of a Spitfire:

Two legends pictured together:
In conclusion, I enjoyed very much building this fine kit and I hope that you like my model. Now I am moving back to my ship model.
Best regards,
Dan

The internet can be a wonderful place! It is especially wonderful if you are searching for images to add to a post at Model Ship World. You can find thousands of images of ships online!
 
BUT (and this is a big but) you probably don't own those images! And that means you can't simply add them willy-nilly to your content! Many images you find by doing an internet search are licensed, meaning there are rules that govern how the images may be used. If you violate the terms of the licensing agreement, you are breaking the law. If you share those images to MSW, you may even be placing MSW in legal jeopardy.
 
There is a way to determine whether you can share an image you find online, and it's pretty easy to do. I will demonstrate this for you here. Let's start with a Google search for HMS Victory. The search results look like this:
 

 
 
In the upper right corner of the results page, look for the "Tools" drop-down menu and click it.
 

 
 
This action opens a second toolbar, from which you should next select the  "Usage rights" drop-down menu.
 

 
 
This brings up a menu with three options:

 
"Not filtered by license" shows all the results of a search. This is the default option. "Commercial & other licenses" typically means you're going to have to pay a fee to use the image. Images from stock image vendors such as Shutterstock and Alamy fall into this category, as do most other results. "Creative Commons licenses" is the option you want. Be prepared to see a greatly diminished set of results!  
Clicking that option brings up only images that are generally okay for you to use, but with caveats, as I'll show you shortly. Note in this image that TWO of the first three results shown in the "not filtered" set are gone now!
 
 

 
At this point, you still have some homework to do -- you need to actually read the licensing terms and see what conditions you need to fulfill in order to use the image. Let's look at the first image on its Wikimedia page.
 
 

 
Scrolling down that page brings us to the licensing information, which says that you are free to share the work. Hooray!
 

 
But wait! Not so fast! Even for this shareable image there are conditions you must fulfill! For this image, you must "give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made."
 

 
What does that mean? That means you must cite your source, i.e., tell us where you obtained the photo. Here's what that looks like in a kit review I posted:

 
For comparison, let's go back to our search results, set the usage rights option to "Commercial & other licenses", and then click on one of the results from Alamy, a stock image vendor. We'll follow the links until we get to the image at Alamy's website.
 
 

 
 
There are two very important things to take notice of at the Alamy image page. The first is that the image is NOT free to use! If you want to use it, you have to pay $39 for the privilege.
 
 

 
 
The second important thing to take note of is that the image is watermarked. A watermark indicates that someone is claiming ownership of the image. After you pay Alamy the $39 fee, they will send you an unmarked copy of the image. See how that works? If you share a watermarked image to MSW, that's a dead giveaway that you didn't pay the fee!
 
 

 
 
Yes, it takes a bit more work to research usage rights, but you need to do it, because
it's the honest and legal thing to do it helps ensure that our beloved forum doesn't end up in legal hot water and, probably most importantly for forum members, the staff will delete photos from your posts that they have determined violate usage rights!  
Thanks for your cooperation!

Good evening everyone
Welcome to my new build, this kit is the very same kit that was reviewed By @James H, and i would like to thank him for donating the kit to me for completion
 
day 1 Frames
No written instructions for this, its all online, but lots of it
first impressions
The frames are 2.5mm ply, and quite good quality, the laser cuts are clean, and the pieces can be pushed out quite easily, but on test fitting, all the joints are quite sloppy, and care is needed to ensure, each frame is kept as tight as possible, they are  made up of at least 4 pieces, some are five
Centre line why have one piece when you can have four. i quess it saves warping, but its a bit daft, considering as above all the joints are quite sloppy, side plates are added to add strength to the join
bow and stern sections have been made up as well, again, well glued, because as soon as they are raised vertical to the centre line the bits fall off





 
 

Far too many distractions but Ive been getting bits done here and there.
 last two bits of PE were a puzzle.

The instructions show P4 as mounted on the turret but not where. 

The helpful photos provided by Patrick once again came in very handy and confirmed that there is nothing similar on the real machine.
Again P9 is supposed to be situated in front of the driver’s hatch but the photos show nothing there so these pieces have been omitted.

That done the tank was ready for paint touch up and a gloss coat ready for the decals. The decals came off the backing paper nicely and laid down smoothly.
 spade was added and the towing cable. The kit supplies a length of braided wire for this but no indication of placement or length. Once again those photos …… Many thanks again @Baker
The wire looked under scale and too springy to use easily so I substituted a piece of rigging cord painted light grey (galvanized I assume) and added the kit supplied eyes to each end. This was added to the front deck and suddenly it was obvious what some of the PE bits were for.
ive used some diluted buff acrylic paint to simulate a light coat of road dust. I can’t imagine that peacetime tanks were encouraged to be scruffy.

I enjoyed building this kit and actually found it to be easier but still well detailed compared to the Flyhawk kits. I’m very tempted to try another Vespid kit but I’m trying to hold to a moratorium on buying anything else until the pile is reduced.
Many thanks for looking in, for the likes and very helpful support.
Over to the little drummer boy now I think.
alan

Very nice finished boat! Well done, love the colors also
 

Thanks guys!  Really appreciate the kind words!
 
One point I forgot to mention earlier.  I think someone had mentioned problems with super glue causing wood areas not to pick up stain.  I was very careful with my glue applications and sanding to make sure that I didn't have any stray CA on the stained areas.  I did have a couple of small areas that didn't pick up stain very well, despite plenty of sanding.  I think this might have been due to the fact that the kit wood is plywood.  So, it's possible that I had sanded down the top layer to the adhesive between the first and second layer, which would probably cause the same issue of the stain not completely penetrating.  Just a thought and probably worth remembering should I work with plywood in the future.

Finished!  
 
Somewhere I think I read that this kit takes about 20 hours to build.  It probably took me 40-50.  I had to backtrack a bit and rebuild the hull because the stem and stern settled off kilter.  With the super glue method of construction, it was fairly easy to pop off the planks, sand off the glue, and re-glue.  For paints and stains, I used the following:
 
Unpainted sections:  I used a combination of Minwax Golden Oak for most of the interior, and Minwax Gunstock for the rails, seats, frames, etc.  These were sealed with Minwax Polycrylic clear semi-gloss.
 
Painted sections:  I primed all painted sections with Rust-Oleum Flat Gray.  The white was done using Rust-Oleum Heirloom White, which I liked because it was a softer, almost cream white instead of a stark white.  I originally used Rust-Oleum Charcoal Gray for the black sections, but I thought it was too light for what was supposed to be carbon fiber.  So, I ended up spraying with a 2:1 mixture of Tamiya Nato Gray/Tamiya Flat Black.  I then cleared with Rust-Oleum Clear Semi-Gloss.
 
All in all, this was a really fun kit that used different construction methods than we typically use in wooden model ship building - so, I certainly learned a lot.  I would definitely recommend it (or the other CLC kits) if you're looking for a quick palette-cleanser.
 
It's a fairly long model, so my apologies for the poor pictures - best I could do!
 
Thanks for looking in!
 









 

Well that was quick, the assemblies went together better than I thought.  
So here are the final round of pictures, calling this one finished!  
Thanks to everyone who followed along and commented or liked.
 
I think I have the need for another Non-ship build, will start a log soon, a 1/48 Fairey Gannet. 😁

Good morning everyone!
 
Things have gone reasonably well over the last little while. After the lettering was finished I began to add all the extraneous little details, Propellors, landing gear, bomb bay doors, aerial masts and whatnot.
 

 

 
A not too involved process. The landing gear went better than I expected, for once the parts actually fit as designed! After a final touch up, I sealed everything with a layer of Testors' Dullcote. And then the fun of removing all the masking from the glazing. The turret glass required a little studious work with a tooth pick to get rid of a couple of spots where the paint bled, but the nose and canopy area came out clean and crisp.
 

 

 

 
From a lower angle it kinda looks like some of the photos I've seen of Bollys stuffed and mounted in museums:
 

 

 
Overall, I think I managed alight. Not the best result, but given the fitment challenges with this kit, it will do. The bright yellow paint definitely highlights things we'd rather not see. (Yeah some of those seams could have been better, but from a distance, and in natural light they don't show so badly). I would say that this is not the best kit offering from Airfix, this is perhaps one that deserves a bit of a revisit in terms of their design work and tooling, as they are reissuing the Blenheim Mk I this year, it obviously must be a somewhat popular kit.
 
Anyway, a quick final shot of my Bristol collection so far:
 

 
I may do a little weathering yet, but I'm happy to call this one done.
 
Thanks to all who have been following along, leaving kind comments and "likes", your support and feedback is always greatly appreciated!
 
Andy
 
 

good evening everyone
Track Base
 
spent the last few days working on the base,
i read that if the barrel to reduced to the correct size i will only need 3x30cm beds and the end caps so thats what i have gone with
i had been hoping to use some trumpeter rolling stock on it as well but the track width distances are quite a way out,

in grey primer and black top coat

ballast reds

 
and greys

paints used for the wood XF-78 wooden deck tan
oils burnt umber

 
 
 

 


 

Good morning everyone
 
Track bed (rail)
 
The kit comes with aluminium rails, which have been primed and then painted in Red Ochre, the running surfaces will then be cleaned off
 
I put some of the units together to see what the effect would be when complete,- the jury is out, looks far to clean

lol Maybe you are looking at the wrong modelling site, these are my slippers which have so far not been destroyed by the boi's 

Good morning everyone
Thank you for comments and likes
 
lesson learnt - Just because it is on yr bucket list- does not mean you have to buy and build
 
yep to all those who said its just a very and expensive, badly detailed kit = i fully agree
 
but i continue
 
Apart from the barrel and all the to be replaced walkways, the rest of the kit now sits on the bogies
 
Ihe two large side links are supposed to be separate units, and connected by a link system forward and aft so that they can move at different angles on curves, In the centre between the linkages are two large box sections , the after one is two halves where as the forward on is strangely only one section ( its the unit in the photo  with the three large holes(, i have left it to late to do surgery on this, in real life chains were used to keep them from separating, being one piece would prevent it whole assembly from moving on a radius  
 

 

 

 
 




i will cover the breech assembly in the next update 
 
 

Thank you all for your interest so far in the build.
 
It has gone together very well so far and I thought a few pictures of progress so far were needed before I forget to take any pictures!  One of the things I wanted to try and replicate was the linen/red dope interior look.  As discussed in post#11 above, on smaller aircraft this could be patchy, I did a base coat in a pale yellow for the linen and then a patch application of dull red for the dope.  My source for this look being an unrestored Hurricane that looks this way.  It looks a bit bright to me, but once mostly hidden by the fuselage framing and then closed up, not much will be seen anyway.
 
The tubular framing was all pre-airbrushed before assembly, as it is quite a complicated structure.  Used a little dry brush and washes to bring out some details, a handful of microscopic decals also applied, but you can hardly see them!
 
Thanks for looking in and the comments and "likes".

After a long break, I'm finally getting back to work.
Thanks to Jeff's tip, I've been thinking about the deck being too high and how to deal with it. I also created the remaining 12-pounders.
And since it's very monotonous, it took quite a while.
 

 
They stand beautifully in rows.
 

 
And again, Jeff, you're not annoying at all. I'm very grateful for your advice, as it helps me avoid such annoying mistakes. What would be the point of a model building forum if you couldn't build on the experiences of others?
And so I simply shortened the carriage of the eight guns that go below deck.
 

 
Let’s move on to the next conversion. Again, I liked the MK set better than the one from Pontos. Since I will be showing all the gun port covers open, I thought the rope shown was very nice.
What I changed are the hinges. Since they fold down when open, I simply replaced them with a narrow piece of profile.
 

 
This is what it looks like for me. I used a slightly lighter grey to accentuate it.
 

 
And attached to the gun ports.
These are the first external structures. Since it is inevitable that the gun barrels will stick out here, I wanted to have them attached already.
 

 
And so the eight 12 pounders could take their place.
 

 
A few boxes are still missing.
 

 
And so I am quite happy with the position of the guns.
 

 
Now they urgently need the protection of my sheet pile wall. After applying the clear varnish, I will screw it to the dry dock . I am curious to see if I will tear it down again before the construction is finished. 😵‍💫
 
 

good evening, thank you for comments and likes
 
the bogies had the forward sections planked, this replaced the plastic profile, and a grime wash added
this completes these units other than the hand rails and storage boxes


all the walkways have to be replaced as they are just a solid plastic profiles, but were steel mesh in real life, i found a cheap alternative to buy some for a fraction of the cost
the walkways supports were constructed from wood, for my first attempt i think they turned out ok
as you can see i am much further ahead in the build, but i am doing other jobs between paint drying. and not jump around to much

 
 
 









if it stops raining i will get some outside shots

Good evening everyone
thank you for comments and likes
 
All the plastic on the carriages is now complete with the exception of the rails, the plastic decking is being replaced by wood.
Primed in Hycote spay grey primer, and using Greman Grey by Tamiya as the top coat
 
 
Test patch with dark grey and German grey (recommended)

opposite ends with most of the detailing on

in primer

makeshift spray booth 

German Grey top coat

still in primer

some now in German Grey
 

Good morning
I have not tried them on the actual rails yet, the photos are just on the kit plain track bed,  had thought about replacing the wheels, for about 20 seconds, will look and see what they look like when in the final colours, im going to find it difficult the throw large amounts of cash at this project, when ships are my favourite subject, however i still want the final build to look ok.
Went and failed to get Tamiya German Grey XF-63 paint yesterday as out of stock, purchased XF-24, instead, but after a test last night i have now ordered XF-63
 

good evening everyone
 
day 7 chassis
well  I cut the carriages in half, to equal 8 and never thought anymore about it for a day or so, and last night thought well it dont make any difference, i have not actually gained anything as the two chaasis beds are still tight against one another.
spent hours on the web and came across the answer, i had two options
1 - take 2.5mm off each end that has been cut
or
2 - move the pivots on the link bridge further apart, and when placed down onto the chassis they will force the new gap
I chose option 2
link bridge

having moved the pivots towards the ends i now have this gap

at the same time i am continuing to complete the brake fittings

 

Good morning everyone
 
without doubt this is quite a large build, and full of issues, and as a result i dont quite know where to start, as going by the instructions i need to go back and forth to show where i am and how I got there
so bear with me, as i stumble through another build
 
Carriages
the real gun weighed in at over 1000 tons, and to evenly distribute the weight she was set up onto 8 carriages spread over two parallel rail tracks,
However the kit makers decided, oh sod that, we are going to give her 4 carriages, so she cannot go around corners 
 
Day 3 Sunday 9 feb
so at COP last night this was where i left the build, 
 

Carriages day 3 continued
some of the part to make the kit required 4 units,  But we want 8


surgery required as i  cut through the centre line, and did so on one large carriage as a test piece

top and bottom glued

and test fit of the braking assemblies

carriages day 3
page one of the instructions start by the building up of the wheel braking systems, compared to the chunky thick plastic for the rest of the kit big parts this is quite thin and soft
 
these are made up of 16 units with 8 of them with one extra piece (P11)
 
 

when they have all been made up they can then be set aside to be used after the carriages are sorted out

Kevin,
 
Please, make sure that you present the kit with pictures of the parts and sub-assemblies. Not many of use will be in a position to assemble that monstrous kit and we will be following your Build Log with a lot of interest.
 
Here in the USA, Squadron published a short video about the kit, showing some of the elements of that massive kit:
 
 
Thank you Kevin.
Yves

Finally, a decent size model. Kevin, you have to start planning for a larger garage or display room.....
Don't forget to use real PECO Gauge 1 rails for realism and to procure two Marklin BR 86 engines in Gauge 1 to pull it.
 
That should be an exciting Build Log.
 
Yves

Taken from Wikki- not my work
In 1934, the German Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH)) commissioned Krupp of Essen to design a gun to destroy the forts of the French Maginot Line that were nearing completion. The gun's shells had to punch through seven metres of reinforced concrete or one full metre of steel armour plate, from beyond the range of French artillery.[7] Krupp engineer Erich Müller calculated that the task would require a weapon with a calibre of around 80 centimetres (31 in), firing a projectile weighing seven tonnes (15,000 lb) from a barrel 30 metres (98 ft) long. The weapon would have a weight of over 1,000 tonnes (1,100 short tons). The size and weight meant that to be at all movable it would need to be supported on twin sets of railway tracks. The railway tracks were specifically engineered to accommodate the immense weight and size of Schwerer Gustav. Constructed with reinforced steel, these tracks provided a stable foundation for the weapon's movement. Specialized locomotives and cranes were employed to transport and position the gun with precision.[8]
In common with smaller railway guns, the only barrel movement on the mount itself would be elevation, traverse being managed by moving the weapon along a curved section of railway line. Krupp prepared plans for calibres of 70 cm, 80 cm, 85 cm, and 1 m.[9]
Nothing further happened until March 1936 when, during a visit to Essen, Adolf Hitler inquired as to the giant guns' feasibility. No definite commitment was given by Hitler, but design work began on an 80 cm model. The resulting plans were completed in early 1937 and approved. Fabrication of the first gun started in mid-1937. Technical complications in the forging of such massive pieces of steel made it apparent that the original completion date of early 1940 could not be met.[10]
Krupp built a test model in late 1939 and sent it to the Hillersleben proving ground for testing. Penetration was tested on this occasion. Firing at high elevation, the 7,100-kilogram (15,700 lb) shell was able to penetrate the specified seven metres of concrete and the one metre armour plate.[11] When the tests were completed in mid-1940 the complex carriage was further developed. Alfried Krupp, after whose father the gun was named, personally hosted Hitler at the Rügenwalde Proving Ground during the formal acceptance trials of the Gustav Gun in early 1941.
Two guns were ordered. The first round was test-fired from the commissioned gun barrel on 10 September 1941 from a makeshift gun carriage at Hillersleben. In November 1941, the barrel was taken to Rügenwalde [de], now Darłowo, Poland, where eight further firing tests were carried out using the 7,100 kilogram armour-piercing (AP) shell out to a range of 37,210 metres (23.12 miles).
In combat, the gun was mounted on a specially designed chassis, supported by eight bogies on two parallel railway tracks. Each of the bogies had five axles, giving a total of 40 axles (80 wheels). Krupp named the gun Schwerer Gustav (Heavy Gustav) after the senior director of the firm, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach.
The gun could fire a heavy concrete-piercing shell and a lighter high-explosive shell. An extremely-long-range rocket projectile was also planned with a range of 150 kilometres (93 mi), that would require the barrel being extended to 84 metres (276 ft).[12]
 
In keeping with the tradition of the Krupp company, no payment was asked for the first gun.[13] They charged seven million Reichsmark (approximately 24 million USD in 2015) for the second gun, Dora, named after the senior engineer's wife.
Schwerer Gustav
In February 1942, Heavy Artillery Unit (E) 672 reorganised and went on the march, and Schwerer Gustav began its long ride to Crimea. The train carrying the gun was of 25 cars, a total length of 1.5 kilometres (0.9 mi). The gun reached the Perekop Isthmus in early March 1942, where it was held until early April. The Germans built a special railway spur line to the Simferopol-Sevastopol railway 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) north of the target. At the end of the spur, they built four semi-circular tracks especially for the Gustav to traverse. Outer tracks were required for the cranes that assembled Gustav.
The siege of Sevastopol was the gun's first combat test. 4,000 men and five weeks were needed to get the gun into firing position; 500 men were needed to fire it.[14] Installation began in early May, and by 5 June the gun was ready to fire.[15] The following targets were engaged:
5 June
Coastal guns at a range of 25,000 m. Eight shells fired.
Fort Stalin. Six shells fired.
6 June
Fort Molotov. Seven shells fired.
"White Cliff" also known as "Ammunition Mountain": an undersea ammunition magazine in Severnaya ("Northern") Bay. The magazine was sited 30 metres under the sea with at least 10 metres of concrete protection. After nine shells were fired, the magazine was ruined and one of the boats in the bay sunk.[16]
7 June
Firing in support of an infantry attack on Südwestspitze, an outlying fortification. Seven shells fired.
11 June
Fort Siberia knocked out of action. Five shells fired.
17 June
Maxim Gorky Fortresses bombarded. Five shells fired.
By the end of the siege on 4 July the city of Sevastopol lay in ruins, and 30,000 tons of artillery ammunition had been fired. Gustav had fired 47 rounds and worn out its original barrel, which had already fired around 250 rounds during testing and development. The gun was fitted with the spare barrel and the original was sent back to Krupp's factory in Essen for relining.[17]
The gun was then dismantled and moved to the northern part of the Eastern Front, where an attack was planned on Leningrad. The gun was placed 30 km (18.6 mi) from the city near the railway station of Taytsy. The gun was fully operational when the attack was cancelled. The gun then spent the winter of 1942/43 near Leningrad.[18]
Dora was the second gun produced. It was deployed briefly during the Battle of Stalingrad, where the gun arrived at its emplacement 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of the city towards the end of August 1942.[19] It was ready to fire on 13 September. It was withdrawn when Soviet forces threatened to encircle the German forces. When the Germans began their long retreat, they took Dora with them.
Langer Gustav
[edit]
The Langer Gustav was a long cannon with 52 centimetre (20.5 in) calibre and a 43-metre barrel. It was intended to fire super-long-range rocket projectiles weighing 680 kilograms to a range of 190 kilometres (118 mi). This gave it the range to hit London from Calais, France. It was never completed after being damaged during construction by one of the many RAF bombing raids on Essen.
Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster Project
 
Main article: Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster
The Monster was to be a 1,500 tonne mobile, self-propelled platform for an 80-cm K (E) gun, along with two 15 cm sFH 18 heavy howitzers, and multiple MG 151 autocannons normally used on combat aircraft. It was deemed impractical, and in 1943 was cancelled by Albert Speer. It never left the drawing board and no progress was made. It would have surpassed the Panzer VIII Maus (the heaviest tank ever built) and the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte (never built) in weight and size.
Postwar whereabouts
On 14 April 1945, one day before the arrival of US troops, Schwerer Gustav was destroyed to prevent its capture. On 22 April 1945, its ruins were discovered in a forest 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Auerbach and about 50 kilometres (31 mi) southwest of Chemnitz. In summer 1945 Schwerer Gustav was studied by Soviet specialists and in autumn of the same year was transferred to Merseburg, where the Soviets were gathering German material.[20]
In March 1945, Dora was transferred to Grafenwöhr and was destroyed on 19 April 1945. The debris was discovered by American troops sometime after the discovery of Schwerer Gustav's ruins. The debris was scrapped in the 1950s.
Part of the third (52 centimetre) gun was found after the war in the Krupp production facilities in Essen.
The world's largest "Dora ensemble" is located in the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden.
Ammunition
[edit]
  High explosive
Armour piercing
Length
  3.6 m (11 ft 10 in)
Weight
4,800 kg (10,600 lb)
7,100 kg (15,700 lb)
Muzzle velocity
820 m/s (2,700 ft/s)
720 m/s (2,400 ft/s)
Maximum range
48 km (30 mi)
38 km (24 mi)
Explosive weight
700 kg (1,500 lb)
250 kg (550 lb)
Effect
Crater size:
9.1 m (30 ft) wide 9.1 m (30 ft) deep[citation needed]
Penetration:
7 m (23 ft) of concrete at maximum elevation (beyond that available during combat) with a special charge.[11]
Notes
The gun fired a rudimentary high explosive round which was similar in design to most of German HE rounds at the time.
The main body was made of chrome-nickel steel, fitted with an aluminum alloy ballistic nose cone.